the no man's land of birthdays

I got out of my weeping funk in time for my birthday. Part of the weeping came from this feeling that I had lost something but didn't know what I had lost. When I figured out what I had lost, I realized it wasn't something I needed anyway, so I didn't need to mourn it being gone. Even now I can't quite describe what it was exactly, though I know I had held onto it for a very long time and it was time to let go.

Had a good Christmas playing board games with the cousins. Fortunately there are so many of us, you can always get a good game going. We had Scrabble, "Take One" a game that uses the scrabble tiles, Cranium (that game that has everything in it and then some: charades, pictionary, trivia, etc.), and dominos.

I was paired up in Cranium with my Kuya who is down from Canada with his wife and young son. Nice part of having a large family, there's always someone to watch the baby during a party which makes it a nice break for the parents. He was hilarious! He kept giving away the answer to the other team, but could never get it when it was our turn! go figure.

For instance, in Sensosketch (in which you draw the thing without looking), I draw a blimp. He needs to say blimp. He's like "air balloon," "Hindenburg," "air balloon." As time ends, every one yells, "BLIMP!" to which he replies, "Blimp? what's that?"

The funniest task Cranium is Hummdinger in which a person must hum or whistle a song. Very few people won on that task.

Yesterday, my bro and I faced the post christmas shopping crowds which weren't too bad. Best part is that the stuff I wanted was 50%. sweet! We decided to bring my parents into the modern century and buy them a DVD player, which replaces their CD player.

And today, I kick off the last of my 20s. Of course, most everyone is out of town. So my birthday is always a small affair. I've come to find that having a birthday during this time, you tend not to use years as a marker for time. Half the time I don't remember how old I'm going to be that year. It just hasn't been a big deal. We're playing poker and mah jong. And smoke a few cigars with the mulled wine after we fill our bellies with some arroz caldo. yummm...